MORE than half a million people are thought to have attended this year's Mersey River Festival, making the event the biggest yet.

The three-day festival culminated in a spectacular parade of sail yesterday, led by the tall ships and followed by vessels of all shapes and sizes.

Organisers have put the success of this year's event down to a shake-up which has seen many attractions geared to children and young people.

Cllr Warren Bradley, Liverpool's executive member for culture, said last night: "It's been a fabulous weekend. The amount of people that have come here has been absolutely frightening.

"We were expecting between 300,000 and 500,000 people. We have to wait until the official figures come in, but I think we have exceeded the 500,000 mark.

"I think the main reason it's been such a success is that we've really tried to involve the kids. We made a pledge to every child this year to involve them in a maritime activity.

"We wanted them to realise that they live on the Mersey and it is the heart of everything around them."

Attractions for children included the Glitter Ships, which are floating artworks made from unwanted CDs by young people.

Highlights included aerobatic displays, an anti-terrorism exercise by Royal Marines and fly-pasts by the legendary Spitfire.

Among the new features was a series of live outdoor concerts at the Pier Head, concluding with a performance last night by Liverpool's King of Swing, Neville Skelly and his orchestra.

However, not everything went quite so smoothly. Disaster was averted yesterday when the crews of two yachts had to be rescued by a lifeboat when high winds blew their boats out of control.

The yachts, Chick Nick and Rosquito, were blown into the river wall near Liverpool Marina at around 3pm as they were on their way to take part in the Liverpool Yacht Club Regatta.

A spokesman for Liverpool Coastguard said: "We rescued the crews, then towed the boats back to the marina. The heavy winds had blown them into the wall, and the crews were worried the boats would get smashed against them.

"They were very lucky, because they were right next to the place where all the lifeboats were exercising.